No promises!

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

A really REAL post!

Yes, a real post...but I will preface it with one more horoscope:

No matter how big a bite you take of reality, you will still likely get through
it without too much of a headache. You may feel as if you were tricked into
assuming too much responsibility, but somehow you were given a secret formula
that enables you to perform like a superhero. Keep in mind that as long as
you're not just doing it for the attention, this can work out to your advantage.

Enough with the horoscopes, right? Now for the post I’ve been promising. Sit back and get comfy – it’s gonna be a doozey.

Monday, August 27th, I started back to school. Again. LOL! I have my AA in Music Education and plan to wrangle out a BA if it kills me. At this rate, it just might do that. I’m still working at the store part-time and teaching part-time, so add on a full-time student’s schedule on TOP of all that, and you have (what's left of) me!

I’ve added a little blurb to the right with my daily agenda to give you an idea of what I’m talking about. It’s too complicated to try to explain. For example, I teach 1st period at PFHS…but only on even days. On odd days I usually go straight up to UWF to practice before my classes start. I have classes during the morning and early afternoon at UWF, then leave to go to PFHS for after-school rehearsals…but only Tuesday through Thursday. After rehearsal I go home to eat dinner with Cam and get him ready for bed. After he reads and goes to bed, I go to work. I usually work from 8PM-11PM most weekday nights. This is all out the window on Fridays (regardless of even or odd days) because of football games. See? Toldja it was complicated.

So now that I’ve griped about my schedule, let’s move on to school. Bah. It’s been twelve years since I took Theory and Ear Training. I did a placement test in both subjects the first week of classes and it was decided (understandably) that I should sit in on the sophomore theory and ear training classes just to refresh myself so I’m not so lost once I get to Counterpoint and such. I’m fine with that. I’m signed up for 13 hours of classes, but am doing all the work and attending all the classes for 17 hours.

Mentally, I have to switch from teacher mindset to student mindset and I really think that is the hardest part so far. Well, that and the placement tests. Shoo. I’m not the only one auditing classes, though. There are 3 other people that have been out of the loop for a few years (though none as long as me…yay, do I win something?) and they're just as lost as I am…which makes me feel MUCH better about myself.

I got most of my theory homework done correctly, and remembered what a secondary dominant was with minimal pain and suffering. I have Brass Methods tonight, where I’m learning to play trombone. We have a few vocal majors in the class and I refuse to laugh at them because they’ll probably be in my Vocal Methods class, too. I just hope they remember...

Band is going to be interesting. Our first concert will be all Russian music, to include a band arrangement of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto #2. Three of our piano majors will each play one movement on the stage with the band. That’s already 30 minutes of music…add a couple Prokofiev marches, another Rachmaninoff piece, and some Shostakovitch and we’ll be done.
I guess we’ll find out tomorrow how badly we sucked at our chair auditions. …sigh… I also have my first lesson. It’s going to be an interesting day.

I'm off for now...gotta figure out what I'll be writing my research paper on for music history. Whee!

Labels: school daze

posted by Jen @ 12:41 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

My horoscope today

Yes, it's 9:34PM and I am just now reading my horoscope. I may have to start reading it first thing in the morning...if I'd read this before I left for school I might have had a better day:

You may be feeling the emotional stress associated with this Full Moon
Eclipse in your 8th House of Transformation. You might not want to change in
ways that are being required of you now. Even if you know that the old road
is changing, you may not be ready for the new path to appear. Nevertheless,
your happiness may depend on your ability to let go of the past.

More on this later. Let's just say that this whole going back to school thing is turning out to be a bigger strain on my time, patience, wallet, and sanity that originally budgeted. My new mantra is "It will be all worthwhile when I have my diploma." Imagine it said through clenched teeth with a desperate smile, and you have my current status. :) I'm nothing if not ornery, so I'm sticking it out. I'll post more later.

Labels: school daze

posted by Jen @ 9:25 PM 0 comments

Friday, August 17, 2007

We had Orientation at Cam’s school today. 3rd grade… Shoo. I mean, ~I~ remember 3rd grade. It was a big year for me…I learned cursive, I learned my multiplication tables (however grudgingly), I moved upstairs to the “big kids” hall (3rd, 4th, and 5th graders), and my teacher’s name was Schwartz. Schwartz may not be a big deal right NOW, but in the 3rd grade, it was a WHOPPER of a name. One vowel in all that mess!

So here I am, looking at the 3rd grade again. Cam's classroom is further back into the school, as befits such a “big kid.” His teacher had the kids take the extra supplies (paper and pencils and such that go into a pile for classroom use later) to the place they belong rather than having the parents do it. She said they’d need to know where the supplies are later, so they might as well start now. I like her already. :)

She told us that she had received a grant that would purchase 19 laptops for her classroom, so the kids would be doing much of their class work on a computer this year. Cam, as you can well imagine, is stoked. He told his new teacher that he couldn’t wait for school to start on Monday.

The only downside is that Ty is in his class again this year. Cam saw his name on a desk nearby and went, “Oh…Ty’s in my class again.” I recall stories about Ty from Kindergarten up. A little girl from his class last year was saying hi, and he goes, “Hey Lizzie. Ty’s in our class again.” Lizzie made a sour face and goes, “Oh no…”. Lizzie’s Mom overheard the conversation and made her own face. She looked up at me and said, “Ty’s in this class? God!” That young man has made a name for himself already…I’ll give you a few guesses what that name might be. Heh…

We were on our way out the door and were stopped by Ms. Jane; she used to drive the bus that took Cam from school to after-school care and she just loves him to pieces. She hasn’t seen him since the end of the last school year and was aghast at how much he’s grown. Then the new Principal (the VP last year) stepped over and said the same thing. She also said that Cam’s new teacher is very gifted when it comes to Science…that’s very cool, because Cam’s favorite subjects so far are Science and Social Studies. Just wait till Social Studies turns into History. Heh.

Anyway – he’s excited and I’m excited and I just cannot WAIT until we get back into a more predictable routine. Even once ~I~ start school (the week after he starts) I think I’ll be happier. My schedule is going to suck, but at least it will be the same thing over and over. Right? RIGHT?! I’m grasping now, huh? …sigh…

Labels: school daze

posted by Jen @ 12:36 PM 0 comments

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